Sunday, 29 September 2013

Home Depot and Lowe’s still haven’t committed to stop selling the pesticides that are killing the bees -- and now it’s time to up the pressure.

A new report by our allies at Friends of the Earth reveals that more than half of the “bee-friendly” home garden plants sold at stores like Home Depot and Lowe’s actually contain bee-killing pesticides called neonics -- with no warning to consumers!

Nearly 125,000 of us have asked Home Depot and Lowe’s to stop selling pre-poisoned plants and bee-killing pesticides. But so far, neither company has responded. Now, we need to up the buzz to protect the bees. PLT photo

We are putting toxic waste (poison) into our water.Toxic = dangerous, immediate or long term effects. In the absence of scientific research, no one should simply claim those products are safe and acceptable, then allow them to be discarded into a water source.

Monday, 23 September 2013

The world needs "a rapid and significant shift from conventional, monoculture-based and high external-input-dependent industrial production towards mosaics of sustainable, regenerative production systems." Full story here.

Saturday, 21 September 2013

There was never doubt that the deadly train derailment in Lac-Mégantic caused an environmental disaster, but a report made public this week by Quebec's ministry of the environment details the extent of the devastation to the soil, river and lake near the disaster zone. Details here.

Wednesday, 18 September 2013

This report, Antibiotic resistance threats in the United States, 2013, gives a first-ever snapshot of the burden and threats posed by the antibiotic-resistant germs having the most impact on human health. Each year in the United States, at least 2 million people become infected with bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics and at least 23,000 people die each year...Details here.

Tuesday, 17 September 2013

Appealing directly to the world's voters to pressure their politicians into taking tougher action against the buildup of greenhouse gases, a top climate official with the United Nations says, international leaders are failing to fight global warming. Details here.

It took nearly two years of legal wrangling, but it looks like the federal government is finally prepared to introduce emergency protections for Canada’s endangered Greater sage-grouse.

The announcement, made this morning, is a welcome breath of fresh air to a case that’s been mired in secrecy, delays and procedural roadblocks. In fact, our efforts may well have helped set another important legal precedent. To our knowledge, this is the first time Ottawa has explicitly stated its intention to introduce emergency protections for an endangered species.

Thank you. None of this would have been possible without you.

Thanks to your support, we were able to bring forward a series of legal challenges that have forced the federal government to act. But as I told CBC’s The National (10 p.m. local), we know all too well that the devil will be in the details and that our work is far from done.

We’re still waiting to learn when the emergency order will be implemented and what it will include.

Rome- The waste of a staggering 1.3 billion tonnes of food per year is not only causing major economic losses but also wreaking significant harm on the natural resources that humanity relies upon to feed itself, says a new FAO report. Full story here.

Thank you for your e-mail of August 15, 2013, to the
Honourable Gord Mackintosh, Minister of Conservation and Water Stewardship regarding the
discharge of arsenic from the Town of Virden Water Treatment Plant. I have been asked to
respond to your letter on his behalf.
It is not accurate that the practice of discharging minute amounts of arsenic constitutes a
violation of provincial legislation. It is permitted by the Town of Virden's Environment Act
licence. Your assertion that arsenic is a pollutant is incorrect in this context, as the discharge of
arsenic does not affect the natural, physical, chemical or biological quality of the environment. It
is not injurious to the health or safety of persons, or injurious or damaging to property or to plant
or animal life, nor does it interfere with, or is it likely to interfere with the comfort, well being,
livelihood or enjoyment of life by a person. Therefore, arsenic discharge in these minute amounts
does not meet the definition of a pollutant under The Environment Act.

Tuesday, 10 September 2013

The United Nations environment agency today welcomed an agreement signed by world leaders at the recent Group of 20 (G20) Summit to reduce the emission of potent greenhouse gases, adding this is a vital contribution in efforts to combat climate change. Details here.

World populations have
skyrocketed, along with our expectations. Our lust for more and more of the
things these fossil fuels can give us - electronic gadgets, power boats and quads - has turned into a life-threatening addiction.

Conservation and
moderation are now dirty words. Consumption is the new religion – with no
thought for tomorrow. Sadly, even our schools and churches are doing little to counter this kind of mindset! Parents are even drilling it into their children, at home.

Make no mistake. Fossil fuels, which once served us well, are no longer our friends.

The more of them we burn,
the more heat-trapping emissions are produced. These greenhouse gases are
rapidly changing the very makeup of the biosphere – the air upon which we and all
other creatures on earth depend, for life itself.

It’s been said that, if
Earth were the size of a soccer ball, that biosphere would be about the
thickness of tissue paper! Yet we treat it as if it is indestructible, relentlessly spewing our filth into it like an open sewer.

It’s gotten so bad, hardly
a day goes by any more without news of another terrible event occurring somewhere
in the world which can be laid directly at the feet of our addiction to oil and
its treacherous cousins, natural gas and coal.

In Canada alone, the
awful flooding in Alberta and the tragic and deadly train accident in Quebec recently,
are painfully fresh in the minds of many. Surely both are examples of our
"fossil fuel demons" coming back to bite us in different ways.

Reliable experts in the
field are saying that climate change caused by humans, likely contributed to
the flooding.

And it was crude oil, now being moved in
increasingly massive amounts around the globe, that ignited when a runaway
train rolled into that quiet little Quebec town on a
fateful night this summer, bringing with it such terrible loss of innocent life
and human misery.

Despite all of this, our leaders, whether they be politicians, journalists or industry moguls, are now all a-flutter over a proposal for a new,
west-to-east pipeline. Apparently spawned during a corporate wet dream in the
boardrooms of the energy giant, Trans-Canada Pipelines, the line (if approved)
would move sludgy, sticky, corrosive, climate-destroying tar from Alberta to Atlantic Canada.

In so doing, it would
travel much of the way through existing pipe which now carries natural gas.
(Natural gas destroys the climate, too, just not quite as well.)

Meanwhile, Prime
Minister Harper, Canada's premiere "fossil fool," is four-square behind this reckless, misguided project.
"It's safer to move oil by pipe than by rail," he pontificates,
shamelessly using the recent Quebec tragedy to his own political ends.

Which mode of travel is
safer, of course, is not the point. It is, rather, how can we stop being the
fossil fuel junkies we have become and find new energy sources which don’t
destroy us all?

Sadly, Mr. Harper
displayed his willful ignorance of the basic science of climate change when
commenting on this year’sterrible
flooding in Alberta.

"I never imagined we
could have a flood of this magnitude in this part of the country," he
declared, preposterously!

CNN photoApparently you can be the
leader of agreat nation and still be
oblivious to the warnings which top climate scientists from around the world
have been sounding for decades. On second thought, it was not
surprising coming as it did from one who thinks climate change is a
"socialist plot!" And not surprising
either, given that this is a Prime Minister actively muzzling climate
scientists if they speak the truth on the matter.

Meanwhile, Trans-Canada's
slick bigwigs are promising that "environmental" concerns will be
taken into consideration in the new pipeline project, as if they had a clue as
to what that word even means, let alone cared. And environmentalists are once again being treated as quaint creatures
who need to be patted on the head, then dismissed. What fails to get
mentioned is, it is the environmental
movement which has science on its side, not the vested, profit-driven interests
of Big Oil.

It was James Hansen of
NASA, the world's foremost climatologist, who warned a year or two ago, it
would be "game over for the climate" if the XL pipeline is built to
carry tar from Alberta to the Texas coast.So, are we to somehow
believe that this latest brainwave (the west-east pipeline) will somehow be
less harmful if it is aligned across Canada, rather than south into the
'States? Give me a break!

Even I am not suggesting
we can go "cold turkey" on fossil fuels. Junkies, of course, need
time to "taper off" from their habits. But surely we need to be
seeking alternatives like wind and solar way more aggressively than we are. (And, don't forget, despite earlier promises to remove them, the Harperites have kept those disgraceful subsidies to the "poor, impoverished" oil industry in place, costing hard-working Canadians well over a billion a year in tax dollars!)

Trouble is, zealots like
Mr. Harper, other members of his “team” like my own MP, Robert Sopuck and their
friends in Big Oil, don't want that. They want it all. And, if that means the
degradation or even destruction of Canada’s precious wild places which so many
of us hold dear – not to mention the planet itself - then, so be it!Related: "Rail Versus Pipeline is the Wrong Question." "Writer Comes to my Defence"

Alberta environmentalists argued in court Thursday that the provincial government is keeping them out of hearings on a proposed oilsands development at least partly because of their concerns about the industry. Details here.

The biotech industry is trying to revive Golden Rice in the consciousness of the public, even though it still remains a largely theoretical product. In the absense of any real news on a crop that hasn't gained traction in more than a decade, the move looks more like an act of desperation than a legitimate defence of biotechnology. Details here.

The Province of Manitoba is distributing this news release on behalf of the Government of Manitoba and the International Institute of Sustainable Development.

News Release

September 2, 2013

MANITOBA TO HELP ENSURE CONTINUED OPERATION OF EXPERIMENTAL LAKES AREA WITH LONG-TERM FUNDING TO IISD, FRESHWATER RESEARCH - - -ELA Research Invaluable in Saving Lake Winnipeg: Premier

The Manitoba government is providing the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) ongoing, secure funding as the organization takes over operation of the Experimental Lakes Area (ELA), Premier Greg Selinger announced today. The new, more than $6 million, six-year agreement includes $900,000 to be dedicated to funding freshwater research and technology at the ELA.

"The ELA will be invaluable to helping us solve the complex issues surrounding the health of Lake Winnipeg and basin waterway challenges," said Selinger. "Stable long-term funding is critical for the nationally and internationally important work that is conducted at this facility."

The premier noted the government of Manitoba is the largest core funder of the IISD.

Sunday, 1 September 2013

Wow. Bayer has just sued the European Commission to overturn a ban on the pesticides that are killing millions of bees around the world. A huge public push won this landmark ban only months ago -- and we can't sit back and let Big Pesticide overturn it while the bees vanish.

Bayer and Syngenta, two of the world's largest chemical corporations, claim that the ban is "unjustified" and "disproportionate." But clear scientific evidence shows their products are behind the massive bee die-off that puts our entire food chain in peril.

Just last month, 37 million bees were discovered dead on a single Canadian farm. And unless we act now, the bees will keep dying. We have to show Bayer now that we won't tolerate it putting its profits ahead of our planet's health. If this giant corporation manages to bully Europe into submission, it would spell disaster for the bees.